Adirondacks - For 13 summers, from the time I was 5 years old, my family would take a summer vacation at the great Sacandaga Lake in the Adirondack mountains in upper New York state. Those vacations hold many wonderful memories.

Alert - one of my favorite punny jokes: Be alert. California needs more lerts. We're short of loofs too. How about fluents? (Two fs, dummy!)

Alliteration - In writing, I work in ways to weave my words (alliteratively).

Alphabet - Playing the game. I taught myself the Greek alphabet when I was about 10 years old.

Amaretto - One of three ingredients in my favorite mixed drink, a Toasted Almond.

American Sign Language - I've taken classes in ASL and taught myself a fair amount before I ever took a class. Unfortunately, I'm neither facile nor fluent and I wish I had more practice. It's an interesting language.

Angel Food Cake - my Mom's favorite cake and one of my favorites too (especially served with vanilla ice cream and fresh strawberries. :-) I remember my mother baking Angel Food cakes, cooling them upside down with the pan hooked over the top of a 16-oz Coke bottle.

Animals - I like animals of all kinds, shapes, and sizes: stuffed toys or real breathing furries.

Archery - Archery is my favorite sport. I was a member of the Penn State Archery Club. I no longer shoot but I still have all of my equipment... and memories.

Architecture - I grew up with an interest in buildings and architecture. My father is an architect and taught Architectural Engineering at the University. When I was in High School, he let me help him correct the multiple choice parts of the exams he gave.

Artichokes - Growing up in Pennsylvania, I had never tried artichokes until I met my hubby. Now we live in Northern California and have artichokes often during "the season". This year we had some huge ones, as big as a melon. We make a dip of mayonnaise and tarragon vinegar. I did add some Pennsylvania culinary background; we prepare artichokes in a pressure cooker.

Artistic - I'm not particularly artistic but, as the daughter of two artistic people, I know it when I see it. I'm more crafty; I can't draw worth a hoot.

Arts & Crafts - I grew up surrounded by Arts & Crafts projects. Both of my parents are artistic. My mother taught Art in the High School until I was born. She's been the mind behind the summer Parks & Recreation crafts program for longer than I can remember.

ASL - I started learning ASL (American Sign Language) when I was somewhere between 11 and 15. I taught myself the alphabet and a number of signs. When I got to College, I started taking classes.

Asparagus - I have always loved asparagus. We have a favorite diner that frequently offers asparagus as an omelette ingredient on weekends.

Astigmatism - I've got it. For years, I'd get new glasses and they'd seem very different. Theoptometrist would always say "No, your prescription hasn't changed... Oh, but your axis of astigmatism has changed a lot." Sometimes I use the astigmatism as a reason for why I don't wear contacts. (The other reason is: "Put something in my eye?! Are you Out of your Mind?!?!") Astigmatism is, apparently, largely responsible for why I can't work those "Magic Eye" stereoscopic puzzles that were so popular during the 90's.

Avocados - Avocados are something else I never had in Pennsylvania. I wasn't impressed by my first taste (perhaps it was insufficiently ripe) but now i love them and I'm pretty good at choosing a ripe one. My guess about the ripeness factor was confirmed a few years ago when my Dad had a bit of a good, ripe, avocado and pronounced it "Hey, that's good! I never liked avocados."

Awk - Awk is a programming language. Unix shell (sh) and awk were the 3rd and 4th programming languages I learned. Between 1983 and 1995, I wrote a lot of programs (aka scripts) in awk. In 1995, I pretty much switched to Perl.

After All is Said and Done - A is also for Andromeda, Archimedes, Aegememnon, Aardvark, Abbacus, Accute, Adjective, and Azure.